Mathilda Oosthuizen – The Bones of the Matter

Nature is a recurring theme in my work, originating with the bone-like material of driftwood. The sculptures I have created from driftwood are of bone structures fastened together using surgical pins.

There is a great morbid hopefulness in the idea of using a product used to mend broken bones to connect pieces of dead wood together. Similarly, the many continuing patterns of nature, as well as life, are twinned together: life and death, winter and spring.

Further development lead to the investigation of the driftwoods journey dependant on the origins of where they were found. Subsequently, I developed a series of work created from sea and air currents as well as maps of rivers.

The metaphorical and raw fundamental substance of nature makes it an idea vessel for carrying ideas as well as being a relatable starting point. Although how we relate to nature is changeable, nature itself is always present somehow in our lives.